The author of the Letter to the Hebrews has had a great deal to teach us about faith and how faith works in the life of the servant of God. In 11.39-40 we read: These were all commended for their faith, God had a heart for those who chose to follow him in faith, and he completed his promise of honoring them with his presence and power. This was not dependent on how rich they were, or how often they worshiped at all.
Yet the completed promises were not received in hand by any of those who followed their God: yet none of them received what had been promised. They saw the fulfillment of each and every word of God to them as they looked into their own faith futures, and they knew without doubt that God’s word was good. What became evident was a total fulfillment of promises in the lives of their heirs and other children of faith.
Those of us who come to Almighty God in faith on this side of the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead have a very different view of fulfilled promises of God: God had planned something better for us, We have the fulfillment of God’s promises NOW! We are witnesses to the completed rewards of God that our forefathers saw in their future by faith. This is no little thing to God, and it should not be dissed by us!
It is by the completion of God’s promises to our forefathers in the faith that they entered into the perfection that their God promised them: so that only together with us would they be made perfect. Jesus is my Savior—but not mine alone! His salvation validates the promise of Father God to all who served him by faith in history. We are the affirmation of every one of the promises of heaven to all faith-filled believers.